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Vettel resigned to Mercedes Formula One pace

Reigning Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel came in seventh at Bahrain practice on Friday. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Sebastian Vettel had a low-key Friday in Bahrain during Formula One practice. The German finished the day in seventh place, and a couple of tenths behind teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who was fourth.

The World Champion is resigned to the fact that for now, Mercedes remains out of reach.

“We're still learning a lot in terms of reliability, in terms of setting the car,” he said. “So it's important to do laps and important to not have any problems.”

Regarding the pace of the Mercedes he said, “They are very quick, it's not a surprise, they have been very quick at the testing here. I think also other teams look very strong again, McLaren, Williams, at first glance. But for us today was mostly about ourselves, like the last couple of weeks to be honest, trying to learn and understand more about the car. There's still a long progress ahead of us.

“I think we learned at the testing here that Mercedes is very strong around this track, and I think they've proven again today that they are quite week. It will be a long way for us to catch up, and long-term it's important that we make bigger steps than them. Today was a good day, a solid day for us, very difficult in terms of where we are in terms of pace, but very easy to say that we are not with Mercedes.”